NEW JERSEY, USA: A man charged with beating to death a New Jersey resident he says sexually abused him as a child now claims he has killed a total of 16 people, including his ex-wife and three others found dead near a New Mexico airport, officials said. Authorities have not corroborated his claim.
Sean Lannon, 47, said he killed the four whose remains were found in a vehicle and “11 other individuals” in New Mexico, Alec Gutierrez, an assistant prosecutor in Gloucester County, New Jersey, said at a detention hearing Friday, NJ.com reported.
Gutierrez said Lannon had confessed to luring several victims to a home in New Mexico and dismembering some of them.
Authorities said in court documents that Lannon made the admission in a phone call to a relative, who told investigators he expressed remorse. Lannon has been charged only with the death in New Jersey, and his lawyer says his client was provoked. He has been named a person of interest in the four New Mexico slayings.
Police Lt. David Chavez in Lannon’s hometown of Grants, New Mexico, said authorities have no indication that his claims about 11 other killings are true and that they aren’t aware of any missing-person or homicide reports that would fit his narrative.
“Is it possible? Sure, anything’s possible. Is it plausible?” Chavez said. “Unfortunately we are still investigating that and conducting search warrants for evidentiary value.”
It was a twist in a case that spans the country but has many unanswered questions, including how Lannon was connected to the New Mexico slayings. Officials from the FBI, US Marshals Service, several police agencies in New Mexico, and police and prosecutors in New Jersey either didn’t respond to requests for comment Saturday or didn’t immediately have more information.
The case began on March 5, when the bodies of Lannon’s ex-wife and three other people were found in a vehicle in a parking garage at Albuquerque International Sunport, New Mexico’s largest airport. It’s not clear how they were killed.
Police say three of them were reported missing in January from Grants, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of Albuquerque. The victims were identified as Jennifer Lannon, 39; Matthew Miller, 21; Jesten Mata, 40; and Randal Apostalon, 60.
Chris Whitman, Jennifer Lannon’s brother, said that Sean Lannon told the family in January that Jennifer had “run off” with some friends, possibly to Arizona. Whitman said that didn’t sound right.
“She was a great mom and, just, it would be uncharacteristic of her to not be with her children,” Whitman told The Associated Press Saturday in a telephone interview from his home in Washington Township, New Jersey. When the family were unable to reach her, he said they filed a missing person’s report.
Jennifer Lannon, Miller and Mata were friends, and Apostalon lived out of his car and was known to give rides for money, Grants police said. The bodies were found in Apostalon’s car.
“I can understand he (Sean Lannon) stated that, you know, he shot his wife and her boyfriend,” Chavez said. “But Matthew was not her boyfriend, so I don’t know how he became involved.”
Whitman told the AP that Sean Lannon had flown to New Jersey March 4 with the couple’s three young children — girls 6 and 7, and a boy aged 4. Lannon took them to his parents’ house and said he was going back to New Mexico to continue looking for Jennifer.
Whitman told the AP that although the couple had divorced after nearly a decade of marriage, they were still living together. They were even talking of moving the family back to the East Coast, he said.
“They were still parenting together, and there was no indication that there was trouble — at all,” said Whitman. “From my knowledge and our family’s knowledge, they were working on their relationship and heading in the right direction.”
On March 8, three days after the remains were found in New Mexico, the body of Michael Dabkowski was discovered in his New Jersey home, just south of Philadelphia, after a welfare check. Sean Lannon is accused of breaking in and beating the 66-year-old to death with a hammer, according to an affidavit.
Lannon told investigators that Dabkowski had sexually abused him as a child and that he had gone to the home to retrieve sexually explicit photos. Dabkowski mentored Lannon and his twin brother through a Big Brothers program in the 1980s, NJ.com reported.
Whitman said the family did not know of the alleged abuse. In fact, he said he met Dabkowski at the birthday party of one of the Lannon children a couple of years ago, and all seemed fine.
“I knew he was a close, just a close friend to Sean, and that he was a father figure,” Whitman said. “But outside of that, we knew nothing else.”
A search for Lannon ended with his arrest in St. Louis on March 10. He was driving a car stolen from Dabkowski.
In court in New Jersey on Friday, public defender Frank Unger challenged probable cause for the murder charge, arguing that Dabkowski had allowed Lannon into his home and that what followed amounted, at worst, to manslaughter provoked by passion, NJ.com reported.
He said Lannon didn’t want anyone “to have control over me any longer” in trying to take back the photos. Dabkowski had “documented those sexual assaults, those rapes, by taking pictures of himself with Mr. Lannon in sexually compromised positions,” Unger said.
The public defender said Lannon retrieved two hammers from Dabkowski’s garage and gave them to the victim, saying, “You’re going to need these. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I would suggest that this fact alone illustrates this was not purposeful murder. He did not even bring a weapon to the home,” Unger said, arguing that Dabkowski attacked his client and then was killed.
Unger wanted the judge to release Lannon before trial, saying he had no prior convictions and is an Army veteran with an honorable discharge.
Lannon was born in Massachusetts and spent most of his early years in suburban Philadelphia’s Gloucester County before he was deployed to Germany, Unger said. He has family in southern New Jersey, including his mother and sister.
But Gutierrez said Lannon “admitted his efforts to conceal evidence” in killings in New Mexico.
The prosecutor added that Lannon had previously spent a week in jail in New Mexico for failing to appear in court. It wasn’t clear what he had been cited with.
The judge ordered that Lannon remain behind bars.
Unger, an attorney for Sean Lannon’s family and Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence Region didn’t immediately respond Saturday to messages seeking comment.
Whitman said Lannon’s story of abuse was “heartbreaking.” And while his family is angry and hurt, there is a part of him that feels sorry for his former brother-in-law.
“We still want justice,” Whitman said. “We’re clinging to our faith right now in the Lord. And, you know, one day — it might not be any time soon — we want to get to a place of forgiveness for him.”
US prosecutor says man accused of 1 murder says he really killed 16
https://arab.news/7m5jn
US prosecutor says man accused of 1 murder says he really killed 16
- Sean Lannon said he killed the four whose remains were found in a vehicle and “11 other individuals” in New Mexico
US and China to publish details of ‘substantial’ trade talks in Geneva
- Both sides agree to set up a joint mechanism focused on “regular and irregular communications related to trade and commercial issues,” says China's vice premier
- WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala welcomed the progress in trade talks as important for the whole world, including the most vulnerable economies
GENEVA: The United States and China are set to provide details on Monday of the “substantial progress” made during talks in Switzerland over the weekend aimed at cooling trade tensions ignited by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
US Treasury Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and international trade representative Li Chenggang for closed-door talks in Geneva on Saturday and Sunday.
It was the first time senior officials from the world’s two largest economies have met face-to-face to talk trade since Trump slapped steep new levies on China totalling 145 percent, with cumulative US duties on some Chinese goods reaching a staggering 245 percent.
In retaliation, China has put 125 percent tariffs on US goods.
The increasingly ugly trade spat between Washington and Beijing has rocked financial markets and raised fears of a global economic slowdown and an inflationary spike in the United States.
Both sides sounded an optimistic note after the talks concluded on Sunday, without providing many specifics, with the Chinese delegation pledging to release a joint communique on Monday.
China’s He told reporters that the atmosphere in the meetings had been “candid, in-depth and constructive,” calling them “an important first step.”
The two sides have agreed to set up a joint mechanism focused on “regular and irregular communications related to trade and commercial issues,” Li told reporters at the briefing.
In a statement, the White House hailed what it called a new “trade deal” with China, without providing any additional details.
“These discussions mark a significant step forward and, we hope, bode well for the future,” World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in a statement shortly after her own meeting with He.
“Amid current global tensions, this progress is important not only for the US and China but also for the rest of the world, including the most vulnerable economies,” she added.
Ahead of the talks at the discrete villa residence of Switzerland’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Trump signalled he might lower the tariffs, suggesting on social media that an “80 percent Tariff on China seems right!“
However, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later clarified that the United States would not lower tariffs unilaterally. China would also need to make concessions, she said.
“It’s definitely encouraging,” Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) vice president Wendy Cutler told AFP on Sunday after the talks had concluded.
“The two sides spent over 15 hours in discussions,” she said. “That’s a long time for two countries to be meeting, and I view that as positive.”
But, she added, “the devil will be in the details.”
The Geneva meeting comes days after Trump unveiled a trade agreement with Britain, the first with any country since he unleashed his blitz of global tariffs.
The five-page, non-binding deal confirmed to nervous investors that Washington is willing to negotiate sector-specific relief from recent duties. But Trump maintained a 10 percent levy on most British goods, and threatened to keep it in place as a baseline rate for most other countries.
“What we get in these talks is a beginning of the narrative, the beginning of a dialog,” Citigroup global chief economist Nathan Sheets said in an interview over the weekend, as the US-China talks were under way. “This is just the beginning of a process, getting the ball rolling.”
Vietnam, Russia agree to quickly sign nuclear power plant deal
HANOI: Vietnam and Russia have agreed to quickly negotiate and sign agreements on building nuclear power plants in Vietnam, the two countries said in a joint statement.
“The development of the plants with advanced technology will strictly be compliant with nuclear and radiation safety regulations and for the benefit of socio-economic development,” they said in the statement, which was dated Sunday and followed a visit to Moscow by Vietnamese leader To Lam.
US transport chief eyes reduction of flights in and out of major airport beset by equipment outages
- Newark Liberty International has been been beset by flight delays and cancelations brought on by a shortage of air traffic controllers
- The Trump administration recently proposed a multibillion-dollar overhaul of the US air traffic control system
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says he plans to reduce the number of flights in and out of Newark’s airport for the “next several weeks” as it struggles with radar outages and other issues, including another Sunday that again slowed air traffic.
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, Duffy said he will meet this week with all major carriers flying through Newark Liberty International, New Jersey’s largest airport. He said the number of flight cutbacks would fluctuate by time of day with most targeting afternoon hours when international arrivals make the airport busier.
In addition to equipment outages, the airport has been been beset by flight delays and cancelations brought on by a shortage of air traffic controllers.
“We want to have a number of flights that if you book your flight, you know it’s going to fly, right?” he said. “That is the priority. So you don’t get to the airport, wait four hours, and then get delayed.”
The Federal Aviation Administration reported a “telecommunications issue” as the latest setback Sunday, impacting a facility in Philadelphia that directs planes in and out of Newark airport. An FAA statement said the agency briefly slowed air traffic to and from the airport while ensuring “redundancies were working as designed” before normal operations resumed.
Infrastructure issues are increasingly a key concern at airports around the country.
In an unrelated incident, hundreds of flights were delayed Sunday at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport — one of the world’s busiest — because of a runway equipment issue. The FAA said in a statement that it temporarily slowed arrivals into Atlanta while technicians worked to address the problem.
In Newark, Sunday’s disruptions came two days after radar at the Philadelphia facility went black for 90 seconds at 3:55 a.m. Friday, an episode that was similar to an incident on April 28.
The Trump administration recently proposed a multibillion-dollar overhaul of the US air traffic control system, envisioning six new air traffic control centers and technology and communications upgrades at all of the nation’s air traffic facilities over the next three or four years.
The FAA said last week that it slows the rate of arrivals into Newark to ensure safety whenever staffing or equipment issues arise. The agency also noted that frequent equipment and telecommunications outages can be stressful, prompting some air traffic controllers to take time off “to recover from the stress.”
“While we cannot quickly replace them due to this highly specialized profession, we continue to train controllers who will eventually be assigned to this busy airspace,” the FAA said in a May 5 statement.
On average, there had been 34 arrival cancelations per day since mid-April at Newark, according to the FAA, with the number of delays increasing throughout the day from an average of five in the mornings to 16 by the evening. The delays tended to last 85 to 137 minutes on average.
Duffy said in his TV appearance Sunday that he wants to raise the mandatory retirement age for air traffic controllers from 56 to 61, as he tries to navigate a shortage of about 3,000 people in that specialized position.
And he also spoke of wanting to give those air traffic controllers a 20 percent upfront bonus to stay on the job. However, he says many air traffic controllers choose to retire after 25 years of service, which means many retire around the age of 50.
“These are not overnight fixes,” Duffy said. “But as we go up — one, two years, older guys on the job, younger guys coming in, men and women — we can make up that 3,000-person difference.”
Adding more air traffic controllers is in contrast to a top priority of the Trump administration — slashing jobs in nearly all other federal agencies.
However, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Duffy deserves credit for putting “caution tape” around FAA safety functions and separating those personnel from cost-cutting by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency — DOGE.
Kirby said United has already reduced its schedule at Newark and will meet with Duffy later this week. He expects a deeper cut in capacity to last until June 15 when construction work on one of Newark’s runways is expected to be complete, though he thinks some reductions will last throughout the summer.
“We have fewer flights, but we keep everything safe, and we get the airplane safely on the ground,” Kirby said. “Safety is number one, and so I’m not worried about safety. I am worried about customer delays and impacts.”
Detained ex-President Duterte is among candidates running in Philippines’ midterm elections
- Duterte has been in custody of the International Criminal Court in The Hague since March, awaiting trial for crimes against humanity
- Duterte is widely expected to win as Davao mayor, a position he held for over two decades before becoming president
MANILA: Even though he is detained thousands of kilometers away, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is among the candidates vying for some 18,000 national and local seats in Monday’s midterm elections that analysts say will decide if he and his family continue to hold political power.
Duterte has been in custody of the International Criminal Court in The Hague since March, awaiting trial for crimes against humanity over a brutal war on illegal drugs that has left thousands of suspects dead during his presidency 2016-2022. It hasn’t stopped him from running for mayor of his southern Davao city stronghold.
Under Philippine law, candidates facing criminal charges, including those in detention, can run for office unless they have been convicted and have exhausted all appeals.
Duterte is widely expected to win as Davao mayor, a position he held for over two decades before becoming president. It’s less clear how he can practically serve as mayor from behind bars.
Over 68 million Filipinos have registered to vote Monday for half of the 24-member Senate, all the 317 seats in the House of Representatives and various positions in provinces, cities and municipalities. The spotlight is on the race for the Senate that could determine the political future of Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte.
She faces an impeachment trial in the Senate in July over accusations of plotting to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and corruption involving her office’s intelligence funds. She has denied the allegations, saying they were spread by her political opponents to destroy her.
Sara Duterte is considered as a strong contender for the 2028 presidential race. But if convicted by the Senate, she will be removed as vice president and disqualified from holding public office. To be acquitted, she needs at least nine of 24 senators to vote in her favor.
“The 2025 midterm elections will be crucial, because the results will set the pace for what will happen next, which family or faction will dominate the elections in 2028,” said Maria Ela Atienza, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines.
If Sara Duterte is convicted in the impeachment trial, it could signal the end of the Duterte family holding key positions in the country, she said. Other family members running in the election include Rodrigo Duterte’s youngest son, Sebastian, the incumbent mayor of Davao who is now running for vice mayor. His eldest son Paolo is seeking reelection as a member of the House of Representatives. Two grandsons are also running in local races.
The impeachment and Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest and transfer to the tribunal in The Hague came after Marcos and Sara Duterte’s ties unraveled over political differences.
“This election will decide the future of our country,” Sara Duterte said in a rally in Manila last week, where she campaigned for the family-backed senatorial candidates and criticized the Marcos administration. “Your vote will decide if we can continue reforms or continue to slide to our doom.”
Her father’s spiritual adviser and close political ally, televangelist Apollo Quiboloy, is also running for a Senate seat despite being detained on charges of sexual abuse and human trafficking. He is also wanted in the US on similar charges.
Trump promises to order that the US pay only the price other nations do for some drugs
- “Our Country will finally be treated fairly, and our citizens Healthcare Costs will be reduced by numbers never even thought of before,” Trump says
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump says he’ll sign an executive order on Monday that, if implemented, could bring down the costs of some medications — reviving a failed effort from his first term on an issue he’s talked up since even before becoming president.
The order Trump is promising will direct the Department of Health and Human Services to tie what Medicare pays for medications administrated in a doctor’s office to the lowest price paid by other countries.
“I will be instituting a MOST FAVORED NATION’S POLICY whereby the United States will pay the same price as the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World,” the president posted Sunday on his social media site, pledging to sign the order on Monday morning at the White House.
“Our Country will finally be treated fairly, and our citizens Healthcare Costs will be reduced by numbers never even thought of before,” Trump added.
His proposal would likely only impact certain drugs covered by Medicare and given in an office — think infusions that treat cancer, and other injectables. But it could potentially bring significant savings to the government, although the “TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS” Trump boasted about in his post may be an exaggeration.
Medicare provides health insurance for roughly 70 million older Americans. Complaints about US drug prices being notoriously high, even when compared with other large and wealthy countries, have long drawn the ire of both parties, but a lasting fix has never cleared Congress.
Under the planned order, the federal government would tie what it pays pharmaceutical companies for those drugs to the price paid by a group of other, economically advanced countries — the so-called “most favored nation” approach.
The proposal will face fierce opposition from the pharmaceutical industry.
It was a rule that Trump tried to adopt during his first term, but could never get through. He signed a similar executive order in the final weeks of his presidency, but a court order later blocked the rule from going into effect under the Biden administration.
The pharmaceutical industry argued that Trump’s 2020 attempt would give foreign governments the “upper hand” in deciding the value of medicines in the US. The industry has long argued that forcing lower prices will hurt profits, and ultimately affect innovation and its efforts to develop new medicines.
Only drugs on Medicare Part B — the insurance for doctor’s office visits — are likely to be covered under the plan. Medicare beneficiaries are responsible for picking up some of the costs to get those medications during doctor’s visits, and for traditional Medicare enrollees there is no annual out-of-pocket cap on what they pay.
A report by the Trump administration during its first term found that the US spends twice as much as some other countries in covering those drugs. Medicare Part B drug spending topped $33 billion in 2021.
More common prescription drugs filled at a pharmacy would probably not be covered by the new order.
Trump’s post formally previewing the action came after he teased a “very big announcement” last week. He gave no details, except to note that it wasn’t related to trade or the tariffs he has announced imposing on much of the world.
“We’re going to have a very, very big announcement to make — like as big as it gets,” Trump said last week.
He came into his first term accusing pharmaceutical companies of “getting away with murder” and complaining that other countries whose governments set drug prices were taking advantage of Americans.
On Sunday, Trump took aim at the industry again, writing that the “Pharmaceutical/Drug Companies would say, for years, that it was Research and Development Costs, and that all of these costs were, and would be, for no reason whatsoever, borne by the ‘suckers’ of America, ALONE.”
Referring to drug companies’ powerful lobbying efforts, he said that campaign contributions “can do wonders, but not with me, and not with the Republican Party.”
“We are going to do the right thing,” he wrote.
